There are common themes throughout Eastern religions, Christian and Egyptian Mythology, as well as Jungian Psychology, which together paint a picture of God. The picture is a puzzle, and we must first identify all the pieces, before putting it together.
Before I paint the picture, here are three important notes — to clear your canvas.
1st— God is a word used to describe a concept. Never forget that words are inert. They’re dead. I say the word Love, and the vibrations hit your ear, triggering a string of lights inside a byzantine conduit within your skull, and you see images or feel feelings of your past experiences of Love (or lack of Love), and you nod your head and say that you understand what I mean when I say that word, but how do I know that your understanding is my understanding? I don’t. I can’t. Words are just symbols, used to express personal, intangible experience. Love cannot really be expressed, it’s unspeakable. And yet, when we communicate, and we are truly understood, we have a feeling of spiritual communion, and I think this is a feeling that we live for.
The goal of this article is to bring readers into that true understanding, that spiritual communion, concerning a few questions, first and foremost of which is, “What is God?” An atheist hears the word God, and (perhaps wrongfully) sees images of a Sky-Dad with a white beard sitting behind a pearly gate who cares whether or not we eat attend church on Sunday; and they (perhaps rightfully) say, “No, that God does not exist,” then leaves their religious life at that. A madman, living in a box in an alley in a city, hears the word God, and perhaps conceives God to mean “that feral cat under the dumpster, there,” and says “Yes, God does exist, I see it right there.” Who’s right and who’s wrong? Well, they are both right in their conclusions of God, if their understanding of God is correct. But their understanding is incorrect.
Before reading this theory, the reader should, if they can, unlearn what they have learned to be God to them, if only for the sake of argument. Perhaps parts of your understanding will be integrated. Perhaps parts will be destroyed. Please follow through to the conclusion, with an open mind.
2nd— This could be thought of as a Religious theory. But what does that word Religion mean? In your mind, you read the word, and images flash. Let’s make sure we’re looking at the same image before proceeding.
Religion comes from the Latin religare, which means “to re-bind” or “unite” This meaning will become more significant the further you read. However, “Religion” means many more things today:
Religion can mean a metaphysical belief system — what is the nature of the forces which govern the universe, and which govern human experience? What do we call them, how do they work, and why?
Religion can mean a mythological belief system. It can mean “A man named Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead.” Or it can mean “It doesn’t matter if Jesus was a real person, the story of his life is an allegory; a myth is a way of explaining something via metaphor, and his is one particularly true or powerful metaphor.”
Religion can mean a system of ethics. “If you act this way, then these good things will follow.” It can mean man must receive Catholic sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, or else he will go to hell after he dies. It can also mean, “by practicing meditation, your conscious self can train your unconscious self to live in the present moment; and the benefit of this is that you live with a quiet, peaceful mind, which is a prerequisite of the enlightened state of being we can all achieve on this earth.” Those are very different conclusions — both are religious in nature.
Religion can even mean Church, or Temple. It can reference the hierarchy of Priests and Words and Sacraments that members of a Metaphysical and Mythological and Ethical belief system should participate in.
This theory requires neither a Church, nor a hierarchy of Priests, nor a literal interpretation of myths, nor an ethics of canonical sacraments, nor even a belief in the individual conscious living on after death.
This theory seeks to a) understand the nature of God b) understand the true meanings of the metaphors and the myths c) define the true meaning of the goal of religion (heaven / nirvana / enlightenment), and d) understand correct practices so that man can achieve that goal. And so yes, this is a religious theory. It is a theory which explains what, and how, of God and Enlightenment. Some readers are perhaps jaded from religion. But there are elements of religion that have very much to offer in this modern age, where there seems to be a pervasive sense of spiritual emptiness to life for many.
3rd— Remind yourself that in ancient times, myths were used to explain things. They were not meant to be interpreted literally. Some myths said there was a rain god and that explained the rain; but some myths were used to explain phenomena of spirit, mysteries of inner life; and, throughout history some myths contained both outer meanings (exoteric) and inner meanings (esoteric) — that is to say, people would write down the outer mysteries, i.e. the stories and fables, but they would only ever tell the meaning of the stories (the inner mysteries) to students/initiates verbally. Today, people say, “Oh, the pagans believed in Oden who was literally born on the winter solstice.” Some un-initiated pagans perhaps believed it. It is however the case that initiated masters did not believe the myths at face value, and that there is deeper meaning to be found.
I have said that the picture of God is a puzzle. This theory puts it together.
I will organize the writing of the theory in this way:
A summary of the whole picture
A description of all of the pieces which make up the whole
A final restatement of the theory, a revisit to the whole picture, and, now that we have this knowledge, what do we do about it?
Section 1 — What Is God?
Spirits, Forces, Gods — these terms can be used interchangeably to describe intangible forces that govern matter and mind. Examine the flower. Inside the seed, there is carbon-based genetic material, but within that material there is an Intangible Intelligence which moves matter to sprout and stem and flower and fruit, to pull nutrients from the environment in order to achieve the blossoming. The flower and fruit exist in space and time, but the Intelligence in the seed exists in neither. No microscope can see it, no utensil can hold it. And yet the Flower is the Intelligence, and this untouchable Intelligence moves the Matter.
We can further qualify Spirit by talking about Spirituality — the combination of our physical, mental, social, and emotional health. If we have positive spirituality, we are cheerful and well-balanced with our place in the world. It seems that consciousness / human-experience is a property or characteristic of Spirit, then. Spirit has power over Mind.
Long ago, energy formed into atoms, atoms formed into elements, elements formed into cells, cells formed into organisms, organisms form into cities, states, and nations … There is a force inherent to the universe which constantly organizes matter and life into higher, more complex systems. It is a creative, intelligent, ordering force. Why not call this force a God? You may call it Physical or Chemical Law, but what are those if not just technical descriptions of the forces which govern matter and mind? Just as chemical law compels atoms to organize to reach balance of charges, and just as homeostasis compels carbon-based life to reach equilibrium with its environment, so too does a force compel our spirit through a Struggle to reach a state of peace and contentment. God governs our mind, same as matter.
But what is God?
I will cut to the chase.
Based on my study of ancient religions, of ancient myth, and of Jungian psychology, God is the collection of four distinct forces which rule matter and mind:
There is a Positive, Masculine, Creative, Conscious, Logical, Intelligent Force. Yang.
There is a Negative, Feminine, Intuitive, Unconscious, Emotional, Nurturing Force. Yin.
There is a Force which unifies these two Gods; a force which brings Positive and Negative together into equilibrium, which marries Masculine and Feminine.
There is a Force which separates these two gods; a force which brings Chaos, Disorder, Imbalance.
“Four gods, huh? Interesting number. Christianity has only one god.” Actually it has four as well: Father Spirit Son and Satan. More on that later.
Note the Masculine-Positive force isn’t inherently “good”, nor is the Feminine-Negative force inherently bad. Atoms contain positive and negative charges but neither is good nor evil; both masculine and feminine forces are capable of both good and evil. They are simply opposite but equals. Yin and Yang.
It is the Unifying force, and the state of Unity, which is Good. And it is the separating, disunifying Force, which is Evil.
You can think of God as “The One”, which is when the light and dark properties are in a state of wholeness, but then you leave out the very real chaotic force from your conception of the sum of all forces which rule matter and mind. You can think of God as Yin and Yang and Unifier and Separator, one god with four distinct aspects. This is fine. Or you can think of reality as containing four gods. Or you can think of reality as containing two gods, and they are moving back and forth between one of two states (whole or divided). It doesn’t matter. What is important to understand, is that Reality has a dualistic nature, and the two natures exist in an ebb and flow of joining and separating — the universe is an interplay between ordering/balancing and disordering/chaotic forces which govern all matter and mind.
OK, so, we’ve painted yet another picture of God. Throw it on the pile with the hundreds of other Gods, right? What does this all mean, practically?
More on that in part three. First, let’s study the pieces of the puzzle a bit closer to back up these claims.
Section 2 — Details of Ancient Religions, Mythology, and Psychology all together paint the holistic picture of God
Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity all say similar things:
Nirvana/Moksha/Heaven is a place on earth. It is a state of being.
That one can attain this state through purification of body and mind, and, through meditative effort, presence in a holy, living moment.
“The light in me is the same as the light in you”. Creating good for others is the best way to create goodness in one’s own life
Summary of Buddhism:
Buddha reached enlightenment via the four noble truths
1. Life is suffering
2. Suffering is caused by desire
3. Nirvana the end of suffering, which means the cessation of desire
4. To defeat desire, follow the Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path reads like a laundry list of basic religious ethics to focus the follower on Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding, Right Action, etc.
The basic teaching was, by purifying our body and mind, and then by living fully in the present moment, we loosen the grip that desire has over our spirits. We can be constantly cheerful because the present moment brings all the spiritual sustenance we need. Buddha said: “The world is afflicted by death and decay, but the wide do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world.” “Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.”
Summary of Hinduism:
Brahman is the Ultimate Reality, eternal consciousness and bliss.
The Atman is the True Self, the spark of Brahman within us all.
Moksha (enlightenment) comes when one realizes experientially that the Atman is the Brahman
You can gain this experiential wisdom through many of the same ethical practices that Buddhism prescribes: right actions, different types of meditation, and a mindfulness that leads to the exit of the cycle of suffering: desire > struggle > satisfy desire > find a new desire > struggle again > etc. etc.
Along with Brahman and Atman, Hinduism has many myths and appears polytheistic based on those myths, but it is truly a Monist religion, which believes “All is One / One is All”.
Summary of Christianity
Literalist interpretations of Christianity make it appear to be completely different from eastern religions. But when the myths and metaphors are interpreted correctly, much of it is the same.
“Life” or “Death” should always be interpreted as Spiritual/Psychological fulfilment or emptiness, a state of being on this earth. “Eternal Life” should be interpreted as “Endless Joy”, and “Water / Bread of Life” should be interpreted as that which brings spiritual satisfaction, that which ends spiritual desires. The belly may grumble from hunger, but one is still constantly cheerful, when they have eaten the spiritual bread.
“The Father” takes on two meanings in the Christian Myth.
In terms of the story of Jesus's life, The Father represents the Logos, the creative force of the universe, the masculine nature of God. The story of Father impregnating Mother, begetting a divine child who later goes through baptism/purification before being reborn in spirit … This myth is part of an ancient pagan mythological arc which I will touch on later.
In the parables and metaphors Jesus delivers, however, the Father represents the Supreme Reality which a ”Son” can experience as the “Great Inner Will” or “Innermost Being”. In this interpretation, there is perfect overlap with the Hindu Brahman/Atman — the Father is a Whole, a Unified Being, and must therefore be genderless (or, contains both genders). Read these passages from the Gospel of John through a lens where “The Son” is a man who lives in a trance-like state, completely in tune with the divine will within him: “You will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” The Son is the state that a man can achieve in this life, where he is just living as a conduit of the Macrocosmic Ordering Force.
Jesus says how eternal life / the kingdom is something you get in your lifetime, because it exists within you: “Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection when they live, when they die they will receive nothing.” … “The kingdom of God is not something that can be observed. The Kingdom of God is within you.” This is Jesus explaining that he is here to bring others into the Kingdom, he is a Son looking for Brothers. In short, it is evident from the Gospels, that “Christ” is a state we can all strive for in this life, like Buddhism and Hinduism tell us. Jesus wanted us all to become Sons, and he tells us that Heaven is within us, and it is a psychological/emotional/spiritual state of being, not a place after the body dies.
When you interpret the Gospels in these ways, they actually start to make sense. You don’t have to believe Jesus literally rose from the dead; you don’t even need to believe Jesus was a real person … but you can still understand the true meanings of the metaphors and myths.
A myth was, recall, merely a way to explain things. When you created a new myth, you were creating a new way of explaining something. So when a myth says Jesus was born from a virgin, then rose from the dead, it’s not meant to be interpreted literally, the myth-makers are just trying to use symbols and stories to describe something else that’s going on. I have read convincing theories that the earliest Christians were Psychologists (Psyche is Greek for Soul) as well as Gnostics in the sense that they sought Knowledge (Gnosis is Greek for Knowledge). But what kind of Knowledge? Your father can tell you the stove is hot, or you can tough it and experience the heat. That is two different kinds of Knowledge — one intellectual, one experiential. Gnosis means experiential knowledge, but specifically, “Experiential Knowledge of the Divine”, or Wisdom… They were focused on the conscious human experience. They sought to touch the stove. They sought to answer how a man is supposed to find the psychological state of spiritual bliss on this earth. Because, if you believe correctly that Heaven is a place on earth (as the gospels and eastern religions seem to say), then what good is your religion if you are not learning how to find the way to access this state of being, of spiritual joy and fulfillment? That was the point of the early Christian religion, before the Roman church took control of the movement and enforced literalist interpretations of the myths.
As a brief aside, I understand most modern interpretations of Gnosticism claim it is a belief that the soul is separate from the body, or that Intellectual Knowledge (your father telling you the stove is hot) will save man. “They believe a demiurge created the world.” If that is an accurate representation of Gnosticism, I agree with the tendency to disregard Gnosticism as invalid. But this is like the homeless man who believes God is the feral cat — in other words, I agree with the conclusion if the premise is correct, but I disagree with the premise. This article however is not the time or place to debate the premise, and frankly it isn’t even important. Suffice it to say that there were those who sought experiential knowledge of the divine, and used myths as metaphor to explain how to do so. This is my understanding of the Gnostics. For the purposes of this theory you can throw the demiurges away.
So, if early Christians were psychologists focused on experiencing the God within us, how did they go about realizing their goal? More on that soon. First, an important look at another prominent myth.
Egyptian Mythology
There are four main characters in Egyptian Mythology:
Osiris - God of Creation and Life
Isis (Wife of Osiris) - Goddess of the Underworld, Magic, Wisdom
Horus (Son of Osiris and Isis) - God of Sun and Kingship, symbolized by the All Seeing Eye
Seth (Osiris evil brother) - Trickster, God of Chaos
The story goes like this: Osiris ruled Egypt, a wise and just God-king. He was a mythologized figure who represented all the pharaohs and people, like a George Washington to the Egyptians, the Wise Father and also the Hero. Seth, his brother, was jealous, and wanted nothing more than undeserved dominion over the Egyptian state. Osiris ages and decays over time, and, sensing weakness, Seth chops him up into pieces. Isis then finds Osiris’ chopped off phallus and makes herself pregnant with it. Gives birth to Horus. He is the long lost son of the rightful King. After he grows to maturity, he goes to reclaim his heritage. Battles with Seth. Loses one of his eyes in the process but banishes Horus. Goes and gets Osiris from the underworld, gives him his lost eye, and he takes Osiris back into Egypt, and it’s the conjunction of Horus and Osiris who rule together over a Sovereign Egypt.
So, in summary: God of Creation is ruler … God of Disorder breaks his rule and takes it for himself… The Union of Male-Creative God and Feminine-Underworld Goddess begets Horus, the Eye, who banishes the god of chaos and restores peace to Egypt.
Do you see the parallels to Christianity?
Osiris : The Father, Creative, Ruling, Just
Isis : The Holy Spirit. ‘Spirit’ in Hebrew is a feminine word. In early Christian writings, Wisdom was the sacred feminine, named Sophia (recall Isis is the Goddess of Wisdom). The Virgin Mary is impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and gives birth to…
Horus : Christ, the result of the Union between God Father and Goddess Mother, Creation and Wisdom, Intelligence and Intuition.
Seth : Satan / the Antichrist
An important note: I have never heard of an answer from Christians which explains evil in our world. Satan is a character in the Old Testament, the Antichrist is a character in the New Testament. What is the answer for why? There’s one omnipotent God, but he lets these thugs hang around? If there is only One God, and he is Omnipotent and Benevolent, from where comes Satan, or the Antichrist? The story goes that there were angels with wills of their own. But the angels came from God. Is the answer that Free Will is the source of evil? What would cause a man to freely choose something that causes pain? The logical answer is that a separating, disordering force exist within the very nature of reality. Conceived of in Egypt as Osiris’s brother, it may be conceived of in Christianity as Satan or the Antichrist. It is the chaotic, imbalancing force.
The Egyptian Myth is virtually the same as the Christ-myth: The Father creates Life, Satan brings disorder/disunion into the world. The Union of Father and Mother gives birth to Son, i.e. Christ. Christ is the savior who descends into the underworld, defeats Disorder, and brings spiritual joy to all by restoring the reign of the Father in our world. “In Heaven WITH the Father” like Horus is with Osiris. You may be well aware of why Christmas and Easter dates were set — they lined up with Pagan holidays. Early Christianity integrated many Pagan myths, not without reason.
“OK, these are all nice stories. Kinda cool how it lines up. Yeah, makes sense. I buy your version of the Gods now. But… well, what do these myths all mean, practically?”
We are getting there…
Jungian Philosophy
Jung was first and foremost a clinical psychologist, focused on resolving neuroses and bringing his patients as close as he could to spiritual peace (recall, Psyche means Soul). In the process, he discovered that much of what he learned seemed to line up with ancient Christian mythology, and he did not believe in coincidences that large…
Here are some of Jung’s key psychological teachings:
Self is comprised of 1) Conscious Ego-Personality, and 2) Unconscious Inner Self.
The Unconscious Inner Self is comprised of a) Personal experience, and b) Collective-Impersonal experience (innate intelligence passed down through genetics; “blood memories”).
Within the Collective-Impersonal Unconscious (Jung refers to it as the Shadow), there are Male and Female archetypes — he calls them Animus, and Anima. E.g., if you are a male, you still have all of your mother’s experiences imprinted deep in your unconscious experience, and her mother’s, and on…
The role that the Unconscious Inner Self plays in formation of the Conscious Ego-Personality could not be overstated. The unconscious affects emotions, it has autonomy over our Self
Jung says that the Animae can rightfully be described as “Gods”, because they are the true rulers of man, they have that much control. The less conscious you are of these forces, the more control they have over you. But, “the more you see them, the less control they have over you. Only when we throw light into the Shadow of psyche does it become clear how great is the influence wielded by these two factors over our Self!”
Projections arise when the opposite sex archetype wields undue influence over the person’s Conscious Ego-Personality. Neuroses arise when the Conscious Ego-Personality is in conflict with the Unconscious self.
For example, in Men, one who cannot let go of his mother, or had an overbearing mother, or some kind of traumatic experience with her — these maldevelopments will cause him to feel internal disorder/conflict, project negatively onto others, or even do evil … until he can resolve the inner conflict.
Hitler is a prime example: His mother breastfed him to a late age, and he ultimately lost her to breast cancer. There was unresolved conflict between the Female Unconscious Image in his Self, and the rest of his Self. There was disorder, disunion, chaos as a result, and this led to enormous projections onto an entire race of people. Broadly, this is the source of all human evil in the world. Men or women who have this disunion, will act out in unhealthy and apparently “evil” ways.
According to Jung, (and in his words, not mine), problems arise in men when their egos are too vain, touchy, too anima. They arise in women when their egos seek too much power and justice, too much animus influence.
Jung states unequivocally we should work to dissolve projections, by resolving the conflict between Unconscious and Conscious. This comes through conscious examination of the unconscious (“throwing light into the shadow”).
Through conscious effort and self-reflection, contents of the Shadow can be integrated into the Ego. “It is one of the most important tasks of psychological hygiene to pay attention to unconscious contents and processes.”
Increase in self knowledge, from integration of parts of the collective unconscious, results in considerable influence on the ego-personality.
When there is a higher union, a feeling of wholeness of self, a marriage of unconscious and conscious, Psychologically this is felt as the “Will of God”, the natural force that appears to us as instinct, and this state is where patients of Jung’s find peace. We find ourselves living in harmony with the habits of our ancestral psychic life.
Jung wrote: “Only under ideal conditions, when life is simple and unconscious enough to follow instinct without hesitation, that compensation works with success. The more civilized, the more self-conscious and complicated a man is, the less he is able to follow his instincts. His complicated living conditions and the influence of his environment are so strong that they drown the quiet voice of nature. Opinions, beliefs, theories, and collective tendencies appear in nature’s stead and back up all the aberrations of the conscious mind. Deliberate attention should then be given to the unconscious so that the compensation can work. Hence it is especially important to picture the archetypes of the unconscious not as a rushing series of images but as constant, autonomous factors (which, indeed, they are).”
Last, in his study of symbology, Jung says: “Christ exemplifies the archetype of the Whole Self”, “The divine child is the symbol of that which is born from the unity” of conscious and unconscious (i.e. “the compensation” mentioned above, “throwing light into the shadow”).
Jung was quite the philosopher!
Are you starting to see how this all ties together?
SECTION 3: SUMMARY, PRAXIS, SYNTHESIS
We can begin to put the puzzle pieces of God together.
God is the name for those forces which govern both matter and mind. There are four major forces:
There is a Positive/Masculine/Creative/Yang God in the macrocosm (Universe/Matter). In the microcosm (Psyche/Mind), this is our logical, intelligent, Conscious Self. He is personified in myth by the Father Above, and Osiris.
There is a Negative/Feminine/Intuitive/Yin Goddess in the macrocosm (Universe/Matter). In the microcosm (Psyche/Mind), this is our intuitive, emotional, Unconscious Self. She is personified in myth by the Spirit-Mother, and Isis of Underworld.
There is the Force which unifies those two Gods, or a State where the two Gods are whole. In the macrocosm this is the force which organizes energy into higher and more complex forms — Order. In the microcosm it is the psychological/spiritual state when there is unity between Conscious and Unconscious, and the self feels united with others, with the world. It is personified in myth by Christ and Horus.
There is the Force which separates those two Gods, or a State where the two Gods are separated. In the macrocosm this is the force which causes decay and disorder — Chaos. In the microcosm it is the psychological/spiritual state when there is disunion between Conscious and Unconscious, and the self feels separated, distrustful, and hate for others and the world. It is personified in myth by the Antichrist, Satan, Seth.
Read the Horus-Christ myth again, now, through a Psychological lens. There is a Force of Creation and Intelligence (our Conscious self). The Union of that Force with the Force of Unconscious Intuition (i.e. Goddess of Underworld) results in a Spiritually Whole Self, an internal State of Order, a perfected Being which drives out Disorder and results in a state of peace and balance. In more practical terms, a man gains enlightenment through the union of his divine conscious with his divine Inner Will, living in tune with his instinct. In this state, he experiences the Divine as love, a state of spiritual satisfaction, balance, peace, “all is one”. Remember the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity: Heaven or Nirvana as a state of being on this earth. Remember Jesus explaining the relationship between the Father and the Son. Integrating Jung with the Egyptian/Christian myth, one enters the Kingdom as a result of the union of conscious and unconscious.
One more metaphor to drive it home – Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas: "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, … then you will enter the Father’s domain.” Many point to this as evidence that Gnostic gospels can lead to transsexualism, but when you take care to interpret the myths not literally but metaphorically, through the lens provided above, it makes perfect sense. Make two into one: conscious and unconscious. Make outer like inner: the ego-personality a reflection of the Inner Being. The upper/male like the lower/female: the conscious creative self with the unconscious intuitive self. He’s talking about marrying our inner opposites, to achieve psychological balance, to achieve the Equilibrium at the end of Spiritual Homeostasis, to achieve the Balance at the end of Atomic Marriage. When the mind is quiet, when there is no conflict between what man wants to do and what man does, when there’s no moment of thinking or indecisiveness or uncertainty… then, man is living in a trancelike state of religious intoxication, enchantment, perfectly in tune with his instinct-will. The Man Is Enlightened, in Heaven, a King, a Christ.
If there was hidden, esoteric meaning behind the ancient myths… If there were powerful teachings reserved only for Pharaohs or proven Initiates, teachings only to be passed down verbally… If there were hidden teachings behind Alchemy (Alchemy = “to fuse with God”), if there were Psychological truths concerning the soul, or how to experience heaven / enlightenment / divinity on earth… then here are those truths laid bare for you.
Now, how to go about fusing one’s psyche with god? How to merge the conscious with the unconscious? How to achieve the psychological state where one is in tune with the Great Inner Being, and the individual experiences All is One? How to do exactly that? What does that mean in practical terms?
PRAXIS - How to apply this understanding to our lives
It is said religion is a map, but it is not enough to study a map and believe it is true. The student must walk if they are to realize its benefits. But remember: the gate is narrow and the path is hard which leads to life; Enlightenment is not a switch to flip. The Baptism in the Jesus myth, or the Eightfold Path in Buddhism — i.e., the cleaning and purification of the body and mind — are essential first steps on the journey to the Kingdom. To follow your Will does not mean to be a hedonist. If you are impure when you follow your Will, you’ll have problems. Marcus Aurelius said that “the fool, if he is not mindful, will eat to his heart's hurt. The glutton earns scorn at the tables of the wise”. Purify the body and mind first. Then, connect the conscious to the unconscious, so that you can hear your perfect inner Will; so that you can bring God out from within you; so that you can experience the light of the divine.
How?
Here is the Praxis, the How, in the most Practical Terms:
Purify the Body: If you exercise regularly, if you moderate your diet, if you avoid dangerous dopamine loops, if you prioritize good sleep, if you spend time in nature or in the sun, if you cut out negative speech and in turn cut out negative thoughts, if you consume and create art and savor the senses and beauty, if you act with deliberation and presence, if you are charitable, if you think and act correctly …. In short, if through conscious effort you discipline, clean, improve your whole self …. This begins the process of purification, of bringing your outer self in line with the perfect archetypical inner self. It is an inexhaustive list. But it is the start of the path.
Quiet the Mind: Then, after your body and mind are purified, a thorough meditative practice is the last piece, the key piece. This is where you train yourself to quiet your mind, to live in a present moment that all ancient religions regard as holy. Through meditation, man learns to control his thoughts and emotions such that something as simple as a deep breath is capable of bringing a physical sense of relaxation, light, warmth, happiness, like drawing spiritual water from a well. Then, only after you have purified your body and mind, and once you quiet your mind through meditation, your Inner-Will begins to speak, and you are able to listen, to feel, to see … You begin to experience God …
God is in Man, and can be unlocked from within him. It’s not wholly inaccurate when ancient peoples considered their leaders to be God-Kings, like Xerxes or Achilles. A perfected masculine being who conquers and follows his will without hesitation, who through conquest brings riches and glory to his people, this truly is like a God being on earth. It is a Divine Will made manifest. The same applies for women, but their ego-personalities instead need to become in tune with the perfect feminine image on their unconscious. They aren’t warriors, they are lovers. They are not creators, they are nurturers, with supreme intuition. Generally, an enlightened woman will act like an archetypical woman, like an enlightened man will act like an archetypical man — and yet every inner self is unique in their own way. If we all act as conduits of our inner will, all males will not act the same, and all females will not act the same, because we all bring our own unique biology/heritage/collective-unconscious to the table of life. But, there is no doubt, that God is in Ourselves (“the kingdom of Heaven is within you”). Man can bring God out into the world.
So go ahead and sin if you want, as long as it does not create conflict in your heart. Listen to your instinct, not what your environment or herd instinct says. Color outside the lines. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”. This embrace of freedom is a marker of enlightenment.
There is in fact more, much more, that can be said about the praxis, the how. The methods listed above are merely the first steps on the journey. So much more can be said, but this is not the place for it all. If you begin to walk the path, more sign-posts will appear for you.
SYNTHESIS - In Conclusion
What is God? It is the two natures of reality, and two forces tugging on that nature. And the greatest God, the one we ought to strive to experience, the one we ought to try to bring out from within us — if I had to pick one symbol to show you and say “This is the best God, among all Gods” — it would be Horus, Christ, the Unifying force, the phenomenon when Positive joins negative, the moment when Masculine and Feminine touch, the quiet mind where the conscious observer is a conduit of the Great Inner Will. It’s the force that puts the two puzzle pieces together, and it is the state when the puzzle is complete. This God rules Matter when it joins positive and negative charges of atoms into elements, elements into cells, cells into organisms… when it orders life; and this God also rules over Mind when he marries the conscious with the unconscious. The greatest God is the state of reality when All is One and One is All. Some mistakenly identify the Father archetype (the creative intelligence) as their primary God. But this is only one half of the Yin-Yang. How can you glorify the Father over all without putting down the Mother?
The force which unites us, and the state of being United, is, of course, Love. When you love one another like you love yourself, when you treat all life with care and respect, when you are constantly cheerful and magnanimous even in the face of hate… these are signs of enlightenment. Sex and drugs can all bring us into the state of Love as well. But, the greatest of all questions is: how to make that state more permanent? Jesus and Jung tell us the answer: purify your body, quiet your mind, marry your conscious ego to your unconscious will, happiness will flow from this state like water from a spring. This state is wholeness, this force is love, this spirit is light, this God is the true meaning behind the myths and metaphors.
Let’s venerate this God of Unity as the one, greatest God. Let’s understand, in physical and psychological terms, what it means when that God rules. Let’s act in life to try to experience that God. Let’s try to bring it out of ourselves and into the world.
POST SCRIPT
The names Christ and Horus are old and corrupted. If we say “Christ” to the masses, the aforementioned byzantine conduits will fire a chain of lightning which evoke certain images of priests and churches, in medieval sacraments and superstitions. Those images are the result of thousands of years of conditioning and will not be cleared from the collective unconscious. Everyone already has a conception of Christ in their heads.
Further, while it is accurate to conceive of God as Love (when the self-one feels connected to the universe-all), Love is itself a word which also has many connotations, associations, and other meanings in the minds of people. “God is Love” is a bumper sticker, it does not illicit serious thought.
A new name is required, in our modern day and age, for the unifying God which governs matter and mind, for the highest force we ought to try to wield, for the spirit of wholeness we should strive for, for the perfect specimen living as an instrument of the Great Inner Will, for the Great Inner Will itself.
I name that God: Aion. And so should you, if your goal is to revive spirituality in our wicked modern age. This word carries no baggage. It does not create electrical signals or evoke images in anyone’s brain, yet. We can forge new pathways with it; or, rather, we can re-light the correct old ones. I believe we can re-animate God and proper spirituality in this world, but I believe a new word is required to do so.
Oxford Classical Dictionary: In early Greek, Aion (αἰών) means ‘life’ (often in the sense of ‘vital force’). Numerous developments occurred in the imperial period: Aion was identified with the power ruling the kosmos, with the sun, perhaps with the eternity of Rome and the emperors, and much else besides…